Sunday, October 31, 2010

On my annual migration South, driving 9 hours a day, this time through pouring rain, the radio blasting tornado warnings, my eyes focused on the tail-lights of the slow moving cars and trucks ahead, what rose to my mind were the photographs of Gypsy children in those condemned Western European encampments. Here are these Roma, mostly from Romania, where they were enslaved until the late 19 hundreds, exploited and marginalized ever since. When a uniting Europe opened her borders, they followed what to them appeared like an opening to hope, only to be met by hatred and persecution, once again. No prospects of work, housing, health care, most of all no acceptance.

Yet, look at the photographs of these children. They look well dressed. Some little girls have ribbons in their hair. The round handsome little faces of some dark-haired, some blond children Roma children expectant, alert. They look loved, trusting next to their parents, their elders. Compare that to the slums of other poverty stricken peoples. And I wonder, are any non-Gypsies struck by this seeming impossibility, this incongruity?

To me, it comes as no surprise. That is because I have known Gypsies, now rightfully called Roma all my life. I know that to a Roma, children are God’s greatest gift, a gift to be nurtured and cherished. Even in Kosovo, where survival was from one day to the next, with nights full of threat, the children were watched over and protected above all.

These children, now chased from Free United Europe, like all children, deserve a better future, a future of equality at last. A six hundred years presence should guarantee them the same rights as other Europeans.

Help the Roma and their children. It will create a better world for all of us.

Saturday, October 2, 2010

It is true. I have been mostly focusing on the positive side of Romaculture. That is because this ethnic minority has been relentlesslybeaten down for so long. Their spirit, however, has never been trulydefeated. Their defense has been to withdraw into invisibility. This hashelped them to survive, as Gypsies, but the more they withdraw, the morethe problems they face keep increasing. And now the time has come tomake a stand, for the places to hide are disappearing like arctic ice.

I am not an academic, although I have read every piece of research Icould lay my hands on, and there were many. I am not a politician. I ammerely another human being, a writer, an elder with lots of lifeexperience, who happens to have love and respect for the Roma people.Our paths have crossed since I was a child. I have known them indifferent countries, of different tribes. I have known some while stillnomadic, those who grew up nomadic then settled down, those who havebeen settled for centuries. I am fully aware of the seeminglyinsurmountable problems they are facing, most of them not part of theirculture, but a result of extreme poverty. To name a few, in my opinionof course:

1- Roma, especially in the Balkans and Eastern Europe urgently need anew type leadership. Whereas, while still nomadic, their leaders werechosen because of their intelligence and their selflessness, povertydrives the bad apples to the top. Men often without scruples toward themajority that surrounds them, but unfortunately not caring about theirown either. Exploiters, not humanitarians. No different from the Mafiain Sicily, Russia, gangs in black ghettos, the drug lords in Mexico,etc. That unfortunately is the dark side of humanity. That is nodifferent for Gypsies. Unfortunately, this does not just happen in thepoor camps, but higher up, where money destined to change livingconditions for the poorest Gypsies never reaches its goal.

2- Again I am optimistic about a new type of leadership for Roma. I havefound the type of intelligent, selfless leadership reborn in evangelicalRoma, who are leading their congregation back to the old values viareligion. One particular such Roma pastor stood up for his rightsagainst a strong Southern county and won. Roma leaders like him, withlove and understanding, lots of help from the majority that rules, canlead those long suffering European Roma to truly integrate into Europeanmajority life, without losing their own culture, which, to my mind, isin Europe's interest to preserve. But only Roma can lead Roma.

3- The division among the different tribes. This has always been thenorm. Just like in war zones the partisans split off into smaller groupsto avoid detection and getting killed, so these 'eternal strangers' hadto travel in small groups to survive, else they would have appeared likean invading army. This of course created different cultures. Now theyhave to unite, at least in Europe to achieve an effective political voice.

4- The Roma women in Europe are emancipating. This is to my mind ofextreme importance. They have always been the preserver of theirculture, but they have done so as backseat drivers. As a woman I havethe highest respect for the Roma woman. They remind me of the women ofpartisans who dragged their kids through warzones. Only to the Roma thewar has never ended.

The true integration of Roma into European majority societies will takelots of understanding of the problems caused by poverty, patience andwillingness to help them overcome the results of centuries ofmarginalization. The time is now to undo the harm done to the Roma people.